Highway Deaths Fell to 60 Year Low Last Year

Now here’s “good news:” The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that an estimated 32,788 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2010. This is a 3% decrease over the year before, and the lowest number of deaths since 1949 — five years before I was born.

In the five state region that includes Texas, fatalities fell 6.8%, from 5,991 to 5,304.

Government officials attributed the decline to more people wearing seat belts, safer vehicles, and efforts to curtail drunk driving.

While these may be true, I would also attribute the decline to fewer people driving as many miles due to the recession.

And it could be suggested that 32,788 people dying — think of Amon Carter stadium being about 2/3 filled — on our highways is ridiculous.

And a bill was filed that would raise our speed limit in Texas to 85 miles per hour on a lot of highways. Can you imagine what that will do to the death toll?

I believe that we should lobby our legislators to make our highways and streets safer, not more dangerous.